Longitudinal, Transverse, and Torsional Free Vibrational and Mechanical Behavior of Silicon Nanotubes Using an Atomistic Model

Abstract

Silicon nanotubes (SiNTs) have been successfully synthesized recently. Despite the wide potential applications of SiNTs, their mechanical properties are rarely reported. In this study, as the first step, the mechanical behavior of clamped-free single-walled silicon nanotubes (SWSiNTs) for both armchair and zigzag structures is investigated by using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations while the inter-atomic forces are described by the Tersoff-Brenner many-body potential energy function. Meanwhile, the results of the total strain energy are used to establish an expression for predicting Young’s modulus of the nanotubes. Afterward, the free vibrational analysis including torsional, longitudinal and transverse vibrations behavior of SWSiNTs with different diameters and lengths are investigated to report the corresponding fundamental frequencies as a significant design parameter. In this study, also, an important stress-strain parameter ratio is defined for vibration analyses named dynamic Young’s modulus. Thereafter, the natural frequencies that are obtained using the current atomistic model are successfully compared with those evaluated by the continuum mechanics model. It is concluded that the utilized approach can predict the frequencies with reasonable accuracy. Furthermore, the effects of geometry on the natural frequencies for both armchair and zigzag structures are examined. The obtained results provide valuable insights into the vibrational behavior of silicon-based nanotubes.

Keywords
: Molecular dynamics; Silicon Nanotubes; Vibration analysis; Natural Frequency; Dynamic Young’s modulus; Mechanical behavior